Why Southwark?
Southwark is a borough of ambition, diversity, and opportunity. This role offers the chance to shape housing services at scale, improve outcomes for residents, and contribute to the future of neighbourhoods across the borough.
You will join a senior leadership environment that values customer focus, innovation, collaboration, and service improvement. In return, you will have the opportunity to lead meaningful work, influence strategic direction, and help deliver services that make a real difference to people’s lives.
We are looking for an experienced and strategic Area Manager to lead the delivery of housing services across one of our operational areas: north, south or central.
This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for shaping and delivering high-quality neighbourhood housing services, improving the customer experience, and leading large multidisciplinary teams across a complex and high-profile service area.
You will play a central role in supporting residents, leading service improvement, driving performance, and contributing to the wider strategic direction of Housing & Modernisation.
What You'll Be Doing
As Area Manager, you will lead the management and delivery of housing services across a large and diverse patch, ensuring residents receive responsive, high-quality and customer-focused services.
You will oversee a broad service offer that includes tenancy management, income management, temporary accommodation, resident involvement, leaseholder management, stock maintenance, community assurance, and neighbourhood-based service delivery.
Working closely with senior leaders, elected members, residents, and partner agencies, you will provide strategic and operational leadership across key housing priorities. You will also contribute to borough-wide service development, help shape long-term plans for neighbourhoods and estates, and support the delivery of regeneration, service modernisation, and continuous improvement.
This is a role for a confident senior manager who can balance strategy and delivery, lead through complexity, and build strong relationships across both the council and the community.
Strategic leadership: Lead the planning and delivery of housing management services across a designated area, ensuring services are resident-focused, effective, and aligned to council priorities.
Operational management: Oversee a large multidisciplinary team delivering neighbourhood housing services, while maintaining strong performance, accountability, and service standards.
Resident experience: Champion a positive customer experience and ensure services are shaped around the needs of residents and local communities.
Service improvement: Lead strategic service development, modernisation, and innovation, including new technology, mobile working, workflow improvement, and new delivery models.
Partnership working: Build strong relationships with tenants and residents associations, councillors, MPs, contractors, internal departments, and external agencies to improve local outcomes.
Performance and resources: Manage budgets, people, projects, and performance frameworks effectively, ensuring compliance with financial regulations, health and safety requirements, and corporate standards.
Neighbourhood and regeneration leadership: Lead on complex estate and neighbourhood issues, support regeneration activity, and help deliver local solutions that improve services and community wellbeing.
Fire and building safety: Support the delivery and monitoring of the council’s Fire Risk Assessment programme and ensure follow-up actions are effectively managed.
Voids and lettings: Contribute to strategies that improve the letting of empty homes and strengthen the delivery of voids and lettings services.
What We're Looking For
You will be a senior housing professional with substantial experience in service delivery, change leadership, and managing large teams in a complex environment.
You will bring:
Leadership experience: A strong track record of leading large and diverse service teams, motivating others, and driving excellent performance.
Housing expertise: Significant experience in housing management and/or contract management, ideally within a local authority or similarly complex organisation.
Strategic capability: The ability to develop long-term plans, respond to changing demands, and contribute to wider organisational priorities.
Stakeholder management: Experience of working with a wide range of internal and external partners, including residents, councillors, senior leaders, and community organisations.
Financial and operational management: Experience managing substantial budgets, assets, and service performance frameworks.
Change management skills: Proven ability to lead large-scale change, improve services, and implement new ways of working.
Communication skills: Strong written and verbal communication, with the ability to provide sound advice and present clearly at senior level.
Professional credibility: A degree or equivalent professional and/or management qualification, alongside evidence of continuing professional and managerial development.
Additional Information
We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together initiative. We particularly welcome applications from members of the black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.
This post sits within Resident Services in the Housing & Modernisation department and reports to the Director of Resident Services. The role includes responsibility for large teams, substantial budgets, and extensive housing stock across the borough. Evening work and attendance at meetings outside normal office hours will be required. The post is also politically restricted under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.
Recruitment Timetable/ Key dates:
Closing Date: 19/04/2026
Shortlisting Date: 20/04/2026
Interview and Stakeholder panel date: w/c: 20th April 2026
Guaranteed Interview Scheme
As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:
- Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
- Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
- If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition
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